Bangladesh News

Ahead of the Joint River Commission meeting beginning here today after a gap of five years, Bangladesh has said it expects to get more than 35,000 cubic feet per second (cusec) of Teesta water in a cycle of 10 days during March-May.

“We are already getting 35,00 cusec per day without asking for it and we certainly expect more than that from the coming talks”, Bangladesh Water Resources Minister Ramesh Chandra Sen said yesterday.

He was talking to The Daily Star soon after arriving in the Indian capital at the head of a 15-member high-powered delegation for the ministerial-level talks to be held at Oberoi Hotel.

Asked how hopeful he is about an interim accord on Teesta water-sharing given the differences between the two sides on the issue, Ramesh said, “Had we not been hopeful, do you think we would have come”?

He also said the entire gamut of issues relating to the Teesta and other common rivers would be discussed with his Indian counterpart Pawan Kumar Bansal.

Replying to a question, the visiting minister said there was no dearth of political will on the part of the leaderships of India and Bangladesh to sort out the Teesta water-sharing issue which will figure prominently in the two-day talks.

The JRC meeting, which starts at around 14:30 hours today, will be preceded by a meeting between Water Resources Secretary of Bangladesh Sheikh Md Wahid-Uz Zaman and his Indian counterpart U R Panjiar at the same hotel.

The two ministers, accompanied by their senior officials, will meet tomorrow after which a joint media interaction is expected.

The Bangladesh delegation also includes Dr Mashiur Rahman, adivser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and Foreign Secretary Mirazul Qayes, who will reach here today.

The JRC meeting is a follow-up of Hasina’s visit to Delhi in January this year. The joint declaration issued at the end of her tour had said the commission would meet in the first quarter of this year to expedite sharing of Teesta water given the sufferings of people on both sides of the border.

The previous JRC meeting was held in 2005. The JRC was formed to resolve conflicts over sharing of waters of 54 trans-boundary rivers.

Sources said the two countries could follow the model of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty signed in 1996 when Awami League was in power.

According to that treaty, if the water flow at Farakka point of the Ganges is 70 thousand cusec, then Bangladesh and India share the waters equally.

If the water flow is 70 to 75 thousand cusec, Bangladesh gets 35 thousand cusec and India gets the rest. If it is above 75 thousand cusec, India gets 40 thousand cusec and Bangladesh gets the rest.

From March 1 to May 10, the treaty ensures that both the countries get 35 thousand cusec in every 10-day cycle.

Earlier, a technical committee meeting on Teesta water-sharing and a secretary-level meeting were held in Dhaka where a draft of the proposed trearty was handed over to Delhi.

India has said West Bengal will have a crucial role in any accord on Teesta water-sharing since the river flows into Bangladesh from Gajoldoba barrage point.

February and March are the leanest period for Teesta on Bangladesh side. Water flow during this period comes down to less than 1,000 cusec from 5,000 cusec in December and January.

At the JRC meet this time, the ministers and secretaries will discuss some other issues including water-sharing of some other common rivers and building embankment on the border side of the rivers, sources said.

TEESTA WATER LEVEL RISES

Water level of the Teesta river has been rising since February 17 as India releases water through Gajaldaba Barrage — some 105 kilometres upstream the Teesta Barrage, our correspondent reports from Rangpur.

Joynal Abedin, executive engineer of Teesta Barrage project said Bangladesh has been getting 3,500 cusec water on an average through the Teesta for last six days.

He said, “Today [yesterday] water level has risen. The amount of water might be 4,000 cusec today.” But in March 2009, the water level was merely 500 to 700 cusec, he added.

Joynal Abedin said, “Bangladesh got 5,000 cusec of water through the Teesta last January which was the highest in a decade.”

“In February, the water level of the river went down. About 1,000 to 1500 cusec water passed in February. During the last seven days, it rose to 3,500 to 4,000 cusec.”

The executive engineer said there are two reasons for increasing the water in the Teesta in Bangladesh part — raining in the upstream for some days and India keeping Gajaldaba barrage partly open.

According to records, water in the Teesta ran between 1,000 cusec to 700 cusec in January, 500 cusec to 400 cusec in February and 1,000 cusec to 1,200 cusec in March in last five years.

Meanwhile, the Teesta Barrage project management has been operating all canals to irrigate Boro fields in its command areas under first phase in Nilphamari and Rangpur districts.

About 50,000 hectares of Boro fields in Rangpur and Nilphamari have been brought under irrigation facility this year, said Shahidul Islam, executive engineer of Water Development Board of Rangpur.

He said, “Bangladesh needs about 8,000 cusec of water in the dry season. We can somehow manage if it is 4,000 cusec. But we never got it in the last decade.”